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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Little Green Chest

I was working on sprucing up some things in the living room the other night and wanted to show you what I came up with. I'm kinda diggin' it.

Remember my antique marble lamp I recently purchased for $10? Here she is fitted with a new (to her) shade. This shade's previous life was on a bedside lamp in our bedroom. Works on here, doesn't it? The wooden box was a Christmas gift for Mitch, and the plant has lasted quite a long time (several years--that's an eternity for me and plants) in the vintage planter.

That rock I brought back from Northern Ireland in the summer of '02. I went over after I graduated college to visit some friends. One day when we were walking along the coast, these beautifully smooth rocks were on the shore (along with some weird-sounding and looking sea lions) and I couldn't resist. (don't worry, I left the sea lion there) It's as smooth as it looks and I love it. (just as long as Ryder doesn't get mad at Bryce and chuck it at his head.)

The pretty glass bottle was a recent acquisition out of my in-law's barn. (I'll do a separate post some day about that barn.) The barn is filled with "stuff" and I go "shopping" in there from time to time. So my in-laws were over last night and I showed them these type of bottles that are currently for sale in the Pottery Barn catalog. Can you believe that the smallest one (12") is $99 and they go up in size and price to $279. Ya know how much mine was? $3. Actually, we worked out a trade--the bottle for a shoo-fly cake mix:) Pretty good deal if ya ask me.

Oh, this note is on the bottom of my lamp. Cool, right?

The painting was $1 thrift store find. I've been wanting to add some "original art" to my "collection". Thank goodness for thrift stores! I love all the watery colors going on on this chest--everything meshes well together.

And the green chest has a story all its own. I need to give you some background. I grew up on a little dead-end street in Delran, New Jersey: Sycamore Street, hence half the title of this blog (the other half is in honor of Mitch's childhood home, Canada). It was a wonderful place to grow up--my best friend lived across the street, my brothers' friends too, dads were little league coaches together, you knew everybody and we had a neighborhood game of "Jail Break" every Friday night, PLUS Michael Stark lived there (the cutest boy ever and my brother's best friend). Ideal, really. There were six kids in our family and only one income coming in, so you can imagine that we didn't have a lot of extra flo'. Actually we were quite poor. We were the family that you gave the turkey to at Christmas time. That's probably what started my love of thrifting--we had to when I was little, so now I can't imagine paying full price for anything. Anyway, there was a family we knew (who also had a bunch of kids) and they always gave us hand-me-downs, etc. That's where this green chest came from--the McDunnough's gave it to us. And ever since I was about seven or eight years old, I've loved it. I love the chippy-ness of it and the shape--it's just a lovely piece of furniture, in my opinion. And now it resides in my home. It's the only piece of furniture I have that's been in the family since the good ol' Jersey days. So I treasure it. When I was about 16, I thought about refinishing it but I'm glad I didn't. I love it and the memories it brings back.

Wow, who knew a piece of furniture could be so sentimental? Anyway...that's the story behind the little green chest. I love that now there are pretties up there that look like they actually belong. They were all meant for each other:) (I'm such a romantic, aren't I?)

Hi Kat, thank you for stopping by and voting for me! I love the styling you did here - it looks great - like you've collected these pieces over a long amount of time. I too like your the story of your green dresser - I'm glad you didn't refurbish it! And, I can't believe you found that lamp for $10 - they are hard to come by for a good price!!

This is one of the most beautiful vignettes I have seen! Every piece belongs perfectly. 10 bucks for an alabaster lamp...DEAL! You have a great eye. Thanks so much for your comment. Happy we found each other through Camille.

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Hey! I'm Kat

Married to a sexy beast of a man (Mitch), mom to three sweet (and sometimes obnoxious) boys, and a so-so housewife who is totally NOT a neat freak. We're slowly transforming our little white rancher into the home of our dreams in Lancaster County, PA. This is where we spill the beans on all our renovations, thrifty finds, and some finger-lickin' good recipes with a bunch of random stuff in between. Welcome! Hope you stick around for a while.